Jester is one of the local legend hills here in Austin, there's even a race dedicated to racing up the .42 miles. It doesn't look like the King of Jester will run this year and hasn't been run since 2006. The site claims the route is 350 vertical feet with grades ranging from 10% to 23% and averages 17%. Well I'm happy to report today for lunch I rode up Jester and didn't have to stop nor did I have to get out of the saddle. I didn't come close to finishing it as fast as the top finished when the race was run in 2006. For my first attempt I wanted to make sure I could at least get up without bodily injury, next time I'll go for the record.
Now the site claims it's a 350 ft climb, my stats say it was only 209 ft. It felt more than 209 so I'll have to do it several times to see if it was bad data. I know my Forerunner will give me different results for the same route on different days or if I do the same section on the same ride the numbers very from the different attempts. Limecreek is about 281 feet and Jester felt on par to it.
At first I was pretty happy with my time, 05:14, it was on par with one of my slower times up Limecreek. I thought it was decent for not going all out and my heart rate was in check the whole time. But then I clicked on the results on the Jester site. I would have at least made the list of top 50 for my age group. My hats off to Blake Harlan who in 2006 had the best time of 02:16.10, that's an average speed of 15.9 mph! There's cars out there that can't get up the hill that fast! Enjoy this video of the pedalmasher going up Jester.
Apr 3, 2008 at 8:48 AM I need to get out to Jester one of these days...not today though. I've never ridden out there. Next time I do my 360 loop I'll make a point of riding it.
Does the 305 have a barometric altimeter? Or does it go off of GPS?